Just because it fits so well: They have also an online shop where you can order these two foxes by famous German graphic designer Otl Aicher, best known for being the lead designer for the 1972 Munich Olympics. Both posters were part of Aicher's controversial image campaign (1976) for Isny, a small resort in the Allgäu. Instead of green fields and blue sky, he created an environment completely in black and white - that was a bit disturbing for some people ...

April 24, 2012

Last Saturday the annual flea market at the Theresienwiese took place here in Munich, with around 20.000 visitors each year. You can imagine, how big this market is. I was there very early in the morning and found many nice things: paintings, embroidered pillowcases, even a three wheeler, dishes from the 50s. I was so packed, I barely got home ...

Lucky me I was able to get some nice books too. Here is my favorite: It calls "Innenausbau im Wohnhaus" in German, in English the title would be "Interior Fittings in the House" or something like that. It's probably from the early 60s (I'm searching and searching, there is no date in it) and contains drawings of living, sleeping and workings rooms, floor plans, sketches, lots of lovely photos. Very instructive and informative, I'll have to read a lot in it.

All planes are printed on perforated paper for easy removal and construction. If I'm honest I'm thinking about removing some of the most beautiful pages just to hang them on the wall - unfolded ... maybe this boring idea results of folding paper planes from YouTube videos for my 4-year-old each and every day ...

April 16, 2012

There is a temporary exhibition about the 1950s at the Deutsches Museum here in Munich. We were there yesterday and it was fun to see all the fully automatic washing machines, hairdryers, toasters, recorder players, tube radios, nostalgic advertising and even a few books, mainly for the husband to show them in the wall unit or for the housewife to learn better baking or cooking ;) We were also here of course.

April 13, 2012

Some weeks ago I got a mail and some jpegs from Sebastian Lörscher, author and illustrator of Ziegenmilch & Zeichenstift, published in Kunstanstifter Verlag. I like his book which he wrote and illustrated together with his 93 year old grandfather Ernst Körber. It's about his own and his grandfather's first 25 years of life. In 50 short stories it becomes clear - even though the times had changed so much - how similar their personal experiences, fears, major goals, disappointments and moments of happiness had been. More about the author/illustrator here and here.

The Kunstanstifter Verlag is a small independent publishing house, founded in 2006 by Susanne and Niklas Thierfelder, based in Mannheim, Germany. The publishers have many more fine books in their program, so I love to share my other favorites with you as well (all in German, so please click on the links to find out more). Here you can browse their current catalog.

Even more faces by Brighton based designers David Goodman and Zoe Miller: new 25 wooden blocks to create hundreds of unique faces. Here you find more of their brand millergoodman, launched in 2008. And here it goes to their Shhhop!

They also made a book about faces (published 2011). "On every page of this inspiring and imaginative book the reader will encounter unusual and creative ways of making faces, using printing, collage, geometric shapes and sculpture. Surprising details are revealed by lifting flaps, looking through holes or turning the book upside-down. As well as being entertaining and engaging, `Faces` offers an insight into major modern art movements, including pop art, op art, abstraction, junk art and kinetic sculpture. The book's designers reference key artists, including Alexander Calder, Joan Miro, and Eduardo Paolozzi as well as graphic designers of the 1950s and '60s." You can pick up a copy here or here.

April 02, 2012

Founded in autumn 2011 the Jaja Verlag is a small independent publisher based in Berlin-Neukölln, more precisely in the Musenstube, a shared studio (this doesn't exist in English: ein Gemeinschaftsatelier) for illustrators, authors, artists, web and graphic designers, among them Ulrike Jensen, Antoine Villoutreix (listen to his chansons!), Elly Wirth, Salom Beaury. Please visit their sites and blog, it's all worth-viewing (take some time). Here you find all Jaja books, buttons, stickers at the publisher's webshop. Last week I had the great pleasure to ask publisher Annette Köhn and illustrator/author Marie Geißler a few questions about their work and Jaja.

Saskia: Annette, please tell us a bit about your work as a publisher. Do you work alone or as part of a team?

Annette: I’m born under the sign of Pisces, so I’m already a plurality! Kidding aside: my publishing house is like a child of mine, and somehow I’m running it alone - but from the time when the publishing process for a new book starts, I’m working in a sort of team together with the author. At least it feels like that, and generally, a close cooperation with the author based on mutual trust is very important for me. In any case, combining ideas from author and publisher and bringing the new book into the world jointly is usually very fruitful.

Saskia: How did you come up with the idea to start a publishing company? Was this something you have always wanted to do?

Annette:Hmm, I’m stumbling over the first part of the question, since in my view, ideas come all by themselves. Starting my own publishing company has been an on-again-off-again dream or plan of mine for quite a while. Finally, in 2011, the time was ripe for putting this plan into action, and so was I.

Saskia: Sales and printing are associated with significant costs, I suppose. How difficult is it to obtain sufficient funding for publishing activities?

Annette: Yes, production is quite expensive, therefore sometimes the authors bear a part of the production costs. I try to keep the costs within a reasonable limit by focusing on small numbers of copies… The sales task is a real time killer, but it makes some of the spent money magically come back! But publishing is financially feasible for me only when I can compensate for the expenses using other sources of income, namely my work as a graphic artist and illustrator.

Saskia: What are the criteria for selecting the books you are going to publish? Which criteria are prime?

Annette: Entirely after my fancy... Sometimes I’ve simply asked illustrators, drawing artists and authors from my circle of friends for input, but mostly they have been approaching me. Of course, I also receive portfolios and finalized concepts from people I didn’t know before. What is important for me is that I feel fully comfortable with the respective work, that its method of production matches its content, and that it fits into the line of works already published by Jaja.

Saskia: Which book are you currently reading in your free time? What are your all-time favorite books?

Annette: Currently I have no spare time at all for reading… But I’m reading Eragon to my son. My favorite books? Dune, The Golden Compass, Harry Potter, Rumo and His Miraculous Adventures, Glennkill, Snowcrash, Diamond Age …

Saskia: Can you tell us about ongoing publishing projects of Jaja Verlag? To which new Jaja books can we look forward to this year?

Annette: Indeed - plenty of projects! Our upcoming project is „Luna&Luno“, a comic book for children (at last!;-). Furthermore, we have “ZOO-ABC” on our agenda (a cardboard book for small children), and in summer a few literary works are planned to appear where the focus is on text instead of illustrations. I have a super-large number of projects in the queue, but I’m not going to disclose all of them yet.

Saskia: Marie, you are the author and illustrator of the charming cook book "Kochen wie fliegen" published by Jaja. How did the idea for the book occur to you?

Marie: The cook book originated from a request from my mother, who was pleasantly surprised at a visit at my place in Berlin how tasty and wholesomely vegetarian dishes can be. She highlighted that she felt unusually “light” after vegetarian meals, being accustomed to “heavier” cooking habits at her home. Therefore the book title „Kochen wie fliegen“ (“Cooking like flying”). Generally, I like to take up requests from family members and friends and use them as an inducement for drawing. The great thing here is that I can approach such ideas totally freely, relying fully on my artistic means of expression or trying out new means. Moreover, these works make the presentees happy and sometimes they can even be turned into commercial products.

Marie: That the Musenstube is a hub for a large number of creative artists. Most of us are illustrators, but there is a large network of people from other creative professions too, such as musicians and authors, who also use the Musenstube as a contact point. I enjoy it very much that this allows us to work jointly on projects and to hold events together. This way one doesn’t grow lonely cocooned in one’s own work, and it inevitably brings about new ideas.Saskia: Was gefällt dir besonders an eurer Ateliergemeinschaft Musenstube? Marie: Dass die Musenstube ein Knotenpunkt zwischen vielen Kulturschaffenden ist. Hauptsächlich sind wir ja Illustratoren, aber es gibt ein großes Netzwerk von Kreativen, wie Musikern oder Autoren, die die Musenstube auch als Anlaufpunkt nutzen. Ich finde es sehr schön, dass wir gemeinsam Produkte machen und auch Veranstaltungen, so vereinsamt man nicht innerhalb seiner eigenen Arbeit und kommt zwangsläufig auf neue Ideen.

Saskia: What is inspiring you more (and why): cooking or drawing?

Marie:Hmm, both is fun, but after all I feel more at home with drawing, because this is where I have more expertise. But there are similarities, of course – for me, both cooking and drawing have much to do with improvisation and both require a harmonious composition of several ingredients. In a way, I perfect my drawings on completion like I would season a freshly cooked dish.Saskia: Was beflügelt dich persönlich mehr: Kochen oder Zeichnen? Und warum?